Elisia LOVES sharks and is sharing her passion and knowledge with other students at her school in the UK. She even did a project to teach other students about sharks and why they are important. Our founder Jillian connected with Elisia for a Skype Q & A and she had amazing questions. Thanks so much for being a voice for sharks and sharing your story with us.
1. What is your favorite species of shark and why?
My favorite shark is the Great White as it is very interesting in its behavior for e.g - A Great White shows a black tip on its fin to show that it needs a little more space. People think that great white sharks are very dangerous and so I want to change peoples minds about this as it hasn’t got a great reputation. A lot of people don’t like this shark so I want to love it
2. What is one species of shark you would love to see?
I would love to see the whale shark because I would like to see how big it is in person. I would also like to see how big it’s mouth is and how it feeds. It just a HUGE shark so it would be amazing to see one.
3. Why do you care about sharks?
I care about sharks and as I have grown up, I love them even more. Also some shark species are in danger and really need our help.If we don’t help them now, In the future there is not going to be many sharks left. We need to protect them from being fished or harmed. They also don’t have a great reputation like I said earlier, so I want to change peoples views about sharks and if one person could love them just a little bit as much as I do then that would mean more people will care about them and their existence in the oceans.
4. Why did you want to teach your class about sharks?
I wanted to tell my class about sharks to show them that sharks are not a animal to be scared of. There is stories about them biting people but it is really rare for a shark to bite. If you swim in the sea with sharks that’s their home which they are protective of and if you respect them, they will respect you. Also just because I am a girl it does not mean that I can’t like sharks. I have been told on many occasions “oh that’s a boy thing” but I just don’t listen to them and carry on loving sharks.
5. Can you tell us about the shark project you did at school?
At school we had to do a school project about what we liked so I decided to do it about sharks. I just wanted my class to understand them a little bit better. So I told them lots of interesting facts about sharks in my project. I also made it fun and they had to draw a shark & dress it up to show the sharks fun side, I dressed mine up with a top hat & watch and he looked really fancy, they loved it! Then at the end I did a quiz to see if they had been listening to me. After class was over my teacher said that it was the best project that she had ever seen in her years of teaching and I won a class reward for it. When she said that I got a very big boost of confidence, it was 2 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday as it was so much fun and I enjoyed talking to my class mates about my passion for sharks.
6. Do you want to work with sharks when you are older? What do you want to research or study?
Yes I absolutely do want to work with sharks when I am older. I want to research their behavior because there is lots to learn and study about them because they are very mysterious creatures. I would like to go down the abyssal zone and tag alien sharks. I would also like to swim with as many sharks as I can and help to protect and save sharks and the ocean.
